As Baraka developed black community, his artistry altered from dense obscurities to the positive, youth-centered style of Langston Hughes. His anthology, Black Magic: Sabotage, Target Study, Black Art: Collected Poetry 1961–1971 (1969), demonstrates his emergence as an American writer respected by outspoken peers. Perpetually in print, he produced short fiction in Tales (1967) and issued additional nonfiction, In Our Terribleness: Some Elements and Meanings in Black Style (1969) in collaboration with Billy Abernathy; Raise Race Rays Raze: Essays Since 1965 (1971); and Afrikan Congress: A Documentary of the First Modern Pan-African Congress (1972).
In his mature years, Baraka published The Motion of History, Six Other Plays (1978), containing the pageant Slave Ship, which was staged off Broadway. He anthologized verse in Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1979) and previously unpublished autobiography in Selected Plays and Prose of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1979). At age 50, he issued The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones (1984), followed by more prose commentary in Reflections on Jazz Blues (1987). His honors include a National Endowment for the Arts award and a Guggenheim fellowship.
